History
The company was founded by Tony Pidgley[5] and Jim Farrer in Weybridge in 1976 as Berkeley Homes, a name borne by regional subsidiaries. Pidgley (the dominant partner) and Farrer had previously run the housing division of Crest Homes and they aimed to focus on executive housing on single plots or small sites. Over the next few years, Berkeley expanded across the home counties, and while building less than 100 houses per year, it floated its shares on the Unlisted Securities Market in 1984.[6]
Following the flotation, Berkeley Group expanded geographically to the west, the south midlands, and East Anglia; it also formed a joint venture, St George, to build in central London. By 1988, Berkeley was building over 600 executive homes per year. By then, Pidgley was aware of the overheating in the housing market and sold houses aggressively to realise cash. For two years the company did no more than break even, but its cash position was strong; during 1991, it was able to purchase the Manchester-based Crosby Homes and the outstanding 50 per cent of St George.[7] That same year, it also announced the creation of a joint venture with the Saudi Arabian firm Saad Investments that involved a £100 million investment.[8] In May 1992, Jim Farrer stepped down as the firm's chairman, becoming a non-executive director.[9]
During March 1993, amid strong fiscal results, Berkeley Group announced its intention to raise £44.1 million via a rights issue.[10] Later that year, the company announced it had made a pre-tax profit of £12.6 million, up to 83 per cent over the prior year, while unit sales rose to 656 from 468.[11] Amid the early 1990s recession, Berkeley Group opted to purchase numerous large development sites at distressed prices. It was during the 1990s that Berkeley changed its operational orientation towards major urban regeneration sites in London, Birmingham, Manchester, and other northern cities.[12]
Tony Pidgley's son, Tony Kelly Pidgley, became an employee of Berkeley Group after it purchased his own company, Thirlstone Homes, in exchange for £15 million and appointed him as the managing director of the Berkeley Homes division in August 1998.[5][13] During February 2001, Pidgley Junior resigned from his position on the board, citing differences of opinion over the direction of Berkeley Group; he subsequently founded the rival building company Cadenza. Two years later, Pidgley Junior reportedly intended to take ownership of Berkeley Group with the aid of several external financial backers.[5][14]
During the early 2000s, Berkeley Group refined its strategy to concentrate primarily on relatively large scale urban redevelopments in the London area. In 2003, it announced the deferred sale of Crosby Homes; the reduction in scale was intended to generate surplus cash, and a scheme of arrangement to return £1.45 million to shareholders was launched in 2004.[12][15] Two years later, Crosby Homes was sold to the Australian developer Lend Lease in exchange for £261 million.[16] That same year, the firm announced its plan for a new housing project that would produce net zero carbon dioxide emissions, which it claimed to be one of the first such developments in the world.[17]
The start of the Great Recession led to Berkeley Group reducing its rate of home construction; it would not return to its pre-crisis output until 2013.[18] In December 2012, Berkeley Group reported that profits had increased by 40 per cent while revenue had risen by 70 per cent during the first six months of the financial year.[19] During the mid 2010s, the firm opted to maintain its investment focus upon various new sites around London; it also publicly stated that it was to deliver additional housing in response to demand.[20][21]
During early 2013, a report compiled by Berkeley Group called for local authorities to acceleration decision making, stating that it could create 420,000 jobs in the construction sector and help the nation avoid a recession.[22] That same month, Berkeley Group and the Wellcome Trust created a joint venture to undertake regeneration projects in the South-east that was valued at up to £400 million.[23] In November 2014, Berkeley Group and National Grid plc established a joint venture, St William Home, valued at roughly £700 million.[24]
In 2014, the firm was recognised at being the most sustainable larger homebuilder in the UK by NextGeneration.[25] One year later, the company won Large Developer of the Year at the RESI awards organised by Property Week.[26]
During January 2020, it was reported that the company would return £1 billion to its shareholders over the following two years; prior to this announcement, it had been intended to pay the shareholders £455 million.[27] In March 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Berkeley Group stated that coronavirus had cost it £80 million in just six weeks and began shutting down most of its sites;[28] it also postponed a £455 million payout to the firm's shareholders.[29] In June 2020, the company announced it was consulting on up to 200 redundancies,[30] and revealed its pre-tax profits were down 35 per cent, accompanied by falls in both sales and revenues, which were claimed to be in part due to the pandemic.[31]
In June 2020, Berkeley Group opted to again defer the payment of £455 million to shareholders by two years, a decision which it attributed to the economic consequences of the pandemic.[32] That same month, it was revealed that the company had increased its net cash reserve to £1.1 billion, which was over £100 million higher than one year prior.[33]
During July 2020, the firm's founder and chairman Tony Pidgley died;[34][35] non-executive director Glyn Barker was appointed as interim chairman for up to two years until a permanent replacement is identified.[36]
In October 2021, via a joint venture with warehouse developer Segro, Berkeley Group launched a scheme to deliver Britain's first multi-storey warehouse, based in north-west London.[37] One year later, it bought out National Grid Plc's stake in St William Homes, which involved in excess of 20,000 future homes across 24 sites, in exchange for roughly £400 million.[38] During 2023, the firm slowed its land purchase activities.[39] Later that same year, Berkeley Group announced that it would not invest in new housing schemes for the time being amid uncertain economic conditions.[40]
In February 2024, Berkeley Group was among eight British house-builders to be targeted by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) during an investigation into suspected breaches of competition law. The CMA stated that it had evidence that firms shared commercially sensitive information with competitors, influencing the build-out of sites and the prices of new homes.[41][42] In January 2025, the CMA said it was conducting further investigations into the suspected anti-competitive conduct.[43] In June 2025, the CMA investigation was extended to August 2025.[44] In July 2025, the housebuilders offered to pay £100 million towards affordable housing programme as part of an agreement to reform practices on information sharing and to end the investigation without admitting any liability or wrongdoing.[45] On 30 October 2025, the CMA confirmed its investigation had been dropped in return for a £100m payment towards affordable homes and other measures including the development of industry-wide guidance on information sharing and agreements not to share certain types of information with other housebuilders.[46]
Also in June 2025, the group announced impending personnel changes: CEO Rob Perrins would become executive chair, taking over from Michael Dobson, after the firm's AGM in September 2025, with CFO Richard Stearn succeeding Perrins as CEO.[47] Berkeley Homes reported a £529m pre-tax profit on revenue of £2,486.5m in the year to 30 April 2025[48] as it delivered 4,300 homes.[47]
